‘one of the greatest achievements in the history of Irish theatre’

The Irish Times

In what is a unique undertaking, Wildfire films together with Druid and RTÉ have recorded all of Synge’s plays and will be making them available on DVD for the first time ever in October 2007. 

DruidSynge, the company’s critically acclaimed production of all six of John Millington Synge’s plays on the same day, premièred at the Galway Arts Festival in 2005 and has since toured to Dublin, Edinburgh, Inis Meáin, Minneapolis and New York.  Charles Isherwood, New York Times critic, singled it out for glowing praise in his Top 10 of 2006 when he described it as ‘a highlight not just of my theatregoing year, but of my theatregoing life’. 

The DVD box set will consist of recordings of the Druid productions of The Playboy of the Western World, Riders to the Sea, The Tinker’s Wedding, The Well of the Saints, The Shadow of the Glen and Deirdre of the Sorrows.  In addition to the six plays, the DVD will also feature two documentaries; Mighty Talk: A Journey with DruidSynge which is an intimate access-all-areas documentary following the rehearsal and production process of putting such a mammoth project on stage, and Playboy and Rebels which commemorates the one hundredth anniversary of the first ever performance of The Playboy of the Western World in January 1907.  Finally, Director Garry Hynes and world-leading Synge expert, Ann Saddlemyer, feature in conversation about DruidSynge and the impact of Synge generally which was recorded at the Synge Summer School in Wicklow in July 2007.

The DVD box set will be available in all usual outlets nationwide from October 3rd and will also be available to purchase online from RTE, Wildfire Films and Druid.